This thread is to get a current summary of what tools Business Analyst's are using.
Here are some guesses to help stimulate thinking:
Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Project(?)
Prototyping: Ms Access GUI, WYSISYG html editor(s), Microsoft Expression Blend, Arise
Requirements Management with good integration: Enterprise Architect, Ibm's Rational Rose
Database Design/Support: Toad 2.5?
Collaboration tools (especially useful when you can't hold a meeting in one location): Groupwise?, Exchange?, Microsoft Live, ?
Tom
Tom,
Pen + paper.
In really fancy situations, I use an electronic whiteboard to capture the user's thoughts. Once I have agreement, I'd record it in agreed repository that the user/IT department can use. Its much easier to throw away a piece of paper or to clear the whiteboard and start again to capture the right requirement then to "cement" the wrong requirement in one of the above tools. Analysts will fight you when you tell them that their beautiful visio diagram is wrong!
I do use Enterprise Architect for my artefacts; its a very cheap (oops inexpensive) portable option.
warm regards,
K
RM Tools my team is using:
Hi:
Tools definetly can help. However, it is important to realize their limitations. When I do a larger scale functional analysis, the first iternation or two looks like a bloody mess. Trying to use a software tool at this stage of analysis can be a real initiative killer. Best to use paper, pencils, and Scotch tape. (Often there ain't no white board big enough.)
Later, particuarly, when I have an adequate high-level understaning of the essentials and how these essentials interrelate, automation tools are great. I like Visio.
Tony
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